News / Cotham
Exact location of Bristol’s gallows rediscovered by historian
The exact location of Bristol’s gallows which stood for hundreds of years has been rediscovered by a historian.
Dr Evan Jones from the University of Bristol has also pinpointed the precise position of a stone cross erected by the 14th century that acted as a boundary marker to define Bristol’s then city and county limits.
Bewell’s Cross was where those convicted of crimes ranging from the heinous to the petty sometimes prayed before they were executed.
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In 1820, the gallows were moved from the top of St Michael’s Hill to the roof of the gatehouse of the New Gaol on Cumberland Road, now within Wapping Wharf.
The locations of the gallows and Bewell’s Cross – image: University of Bristol
Jones made his discoveries at Bristol Archives while looking at a detailed survey from 1792 of the St Michael’s Hill area.
A pedestrian crossing on Cotham Road is now on the site of the gallows with the cross – a section of which survives on a nearby wall – a few yards closer to the mini roundabout between St Michael’s Hill and Cotham Hill.
A section of Bewell’s Cross makes up part of a wall next to Cotham Parish Church – photo: Martin Booth
Jones said that the geographical results of his findings “seem disturbingly prosaic”.
He said: “For half a millennium, this was one of the most symbolically charged places in Bristol, a site of public ‘reality theatre’ that must have troubled the dreams of countless Bristolians.
“But it is now no longer a place, it is just a meaningless space, a few metres above an anonymous crossing point. I find that both fascinating and strangely unsettling.”
Dr Evan Jones Jones said that the geographical results of his findings “seem disturbingly prosaic” – photo: Martin Booth
Main photo: Martin Booth
Learn more about Bristol’s medieval High Cross on a walking tour of the Old City and Castle Park with Martin Booth: www.yuup.co/experiences/explore-bristol-s-quirkiest-corners
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